But Marcos admits he’s upset with Huang as tensions in West Philippine Sea escalate
President Marcos said Monday it would be “pointless” to have Chinese Ambassador Huang Xilian expelled even as he said he was personally “upset” with the envoy’s remarks on the issue of Beijing’s incursions in the West Philippine Sea.
“If I am talking about this on a personal level, maybe I’ll be upset,” Mr. Marcos said Monday in an interview in Tokyo, as he was set to come home from the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit.
“But you are not talking about me. You are talking about the Philippines. It does not serve any purpose for us to lose our temper or overreact,” the President said.
“He is continuing to state the Chinese narrative. Of course, we won’t agree with that narrative, but I cannot see him doing anything else, so we just keep trying. Because the truth of the matter is, even if we have Ambassador Huang replaced, the next ambassador will still say the same things because that is the Chinese line. They will not stop. That is why we have to work around it,” he added.
The President said he understands the Chinese ambassador was “just doing his job.”
“I wish we could talk about it over the table as opposed to colliding with each other’s ship in the open sea. Of course, I will prefer the less confrontational method of trying to decide these things, but it is what it is,” he said.
Several lawmakers, led by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, earlier expressed displeasure over Huang’s supposed failure to help ease tensions in the WPS, with some urging the government to declare the envoy a “persona non grata.”
“This is not just about us. This is about the Philippines. If we make a wrong decision, it will result in a big clash. We don’t want to go anywhere near that situation,” Mr. Marcos said.
As this developed, only one China Coast Guard ship is left within the vicinity of Ayungin Shoal where the BRP Sierra Madre is standing watch, National Security Council Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya said Monday as he denied Beijing was on an “invasion mode.”
“We are monitoring the situation, and as of now, I got the latest data which shows that all CMM ships have left, they already left as of yesterday (Sunday) and this was confirmed in today’s report,” Malaya said in a television interview.
Western Command aerial reconnaissance teams have observed 10 Chinese vessels – including three CCG ships – in the vicinity of Ayungin Shoal as of Friday.
Maritime security expert and former United States defense official Ray Powell called Beijing’s increased presence in the disputed waters an “invasion.”
Malaya, however, said the description was “more of a hyperbole or an exaggeration of what is happening there.”
Over the weekend, President Marcos underscored the need to find “new solutions” and forge strong alliances with like-minded allies as hedescribed the situation in the South China Sea as “the most complex geopolitical challenge that the world faces.”
“I’m afraid we’ll have to be able to say that tensions have increased rather than diminished for the past months or the past years… but we continue to counsel peace and continue communication between the different countries,” said Mr. Marcos, who was in Japan for the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida likewise spoke of serious challenges in the region, without mentioning China.
“We are at a turning point in history, and the free and open international order based on the rule of law is facing serious challenges while we are facing complex and multiple challenges such as climate change and inequality,” Kishida said.
“While the world is facing complex crises as division and conflict escalate in many places, Japan will tackle the challenges together with ASEAN countries, which are linchpins of the free and open Indo-Pacific,” the Japanese leader said, using a term for the Asia-Pacific region used by the US and its allies.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, encompassing waters and islands close to its neighbors’ shores. It has ignored an international tribunal ruling in 2016, which stated that its claims have no legal basis.